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At the beginning of every year, I try to set both personal and professional goals for myself. One of my 2015 goals was to run a long distance race and this past May, I completed my first half marathon where I happily finished within 30 seconds of my goal time. While this was a wonderful accomplishment, I have to admit that prior to my decision to sign up for the race, I could barely run an entire mile without fatigue and ultimately, slowing to walk. When I decided to run the 13.1 mile distance, I knew I would need a solid training plan, a coach who could help me work through the process and most important, buy-in and support from not only myself but also my family members.

A few weeks ago, myself and one of my colleagues travelled to Johannesburg to catch up with the Emerging Technologies team at SYSPRO. Our primary goal was to get up-to-speed with the latest developments in SYSPRO Workflow in SYSPRO 7 and gain an appreciation of how SYSPRO’s implementations of Workflow in South Africa are significantly impacting their manufacturing and distribution businesses for the better.

SYSPRO’s biggest implementations of Workflow were demonstrated and discussed during our time there. A link to the case study of one of these businesses can be found here.

When purchasing a new ERP system, it is not only important to consider the software’s functionality and if it is a proper fit for your business, but to also take a close look at what the vendor’s implementation processes entail. Often, we find potential customers asking us the inevitable question, “Why can’t you implement the software in under a week like your competitor offered? They make it sound so simple and cheap.” To a buyer, a quick, low-cost implementation sounds like a winning plan but can result in astronomical errors, ERP project failures, and future major financial repercussions.

Despite the best of plans, ERP implementations often go wrong because customers have unique requirements that are always evolving and vendors will haul out the sledgehammers to force their solutions to fit - even if they weren't designed to deliver what the client wanted in the first place.

It's like trying to squeeze a watermelon into a small cup. Keep forcing it in and you'll end up with nothing but a messy pulp.

Every company is different. They compete in different markets, have a different target audience, and need solutions that support the different verticals they play in. No one solution can ever fit all.

One of the big differences between Tier 1 and Tier 2 ERP implementations is process maturity. They may be two short words, but they underpin huge differences in how ERP projects play out including how you approach the project, what you do, and how you do it.

As the CFO of an organization, your responsibility is to ensure efficient and effective financial operations and records, and influence overall strategy. An ERP is the foundation of the operations of a business. For a CFO, it enables you to track and report on all business transactions, analyse information, ensure governance and compliance, and increasingly do this via mobile devices. Therefore, you need to be very sure your ERP project will deliver what the business requires, and also what was promised.

Like any major project, ERP implementations go best when planned in advance.

Larger companies can dedicate multiple senior executives as well as teams of junior stakeholders to an ERP project. Smaller companies, on the other hand, can’t dedicate the same number of people to a project, but they do not require the same detail when planning an ERP project.

One thing that we are seeing a lot here in Canada is ERP consultants moving down-market and participating in smaller deals.

We think that it is great that smaller companies are getting expert advice on projects as important as ERP selection, but you can’t just take the process that works for big companies and drop it on small ones without substantial modification.

The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are almost upon us, and most people in the UK are thinking back to the exciting summer of the London 2012 Olympic Games. There is certainly something that inspires us all when it comes to games and competition.